The ARM Cortex-M4 flagship board is launched with exciting details below.

ARM announced the launch of the new embedded processor “Cortex-M4” in February 2010, marking the fourth generation of this high-performance, low-power embedded solution, following the Taiwan Nuvoton M451 series as shown in Figure 2.1.1, with the previous three generations being Cortex-M0/M1/M3.

Cortex-M4 is an efficient solution aimed at digital signal processing (DSP) and advanced microcontroller (MCU) applications, featuring high efficiency in signal processing, while also being low-power, low-cost, and easy to use, making it suitable for motor control, automotive, power management, embedded audio, and industrial automation fields.

The Cortex-M4 processor integrates a single-cycle multiply-accumulate (MAC) unit, optimized single instruction multiple data (SIMD) instructions, saturation algorithm instructions, and an optional single-precision floating-point unit (FPU), while retaining the consistent technical features of the Cortex-M series, such as a 32-bit core with a maximum processing performance of 1.25 DMIPS/MHz, a code density optimized Thumb-2 instruction set, and a nested interrupt vector controller for interrupt handling. Additionally, memory protection units (MPU), low-cost diagnostics and tracing, and full sleep modes can be selected.

The Cortex-M4 can be manufactured in various ways according to application needs, such as ultra-low power versions produced using TSMC’s 180nm ULL process, while the high-performance version targeting 150MHz uses GlobalFoundries’ 65nm LPe process, with dynamic power consumption not exceeding 40µW/MHz.

Several MCU semiconductor companies have already acquired licenses for the ARM Cortex-M4, including industry giants like NXP, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, and Nuvoton Technology.